Chapter 6 - The Baby in the Ambulance
The ambulance struck the security gate and entered downtown traffic with police units behind it.
I returned to the command center with Alexander, Caroline, and Franklin.
Vanessa and Cynthia remained upstairs under guard.
Mia ran into my arms.
“She was scared,” she said.
“Who?”
“The pregnant lady.”
Mia had seen Rachel’s face when Mercer moved the stretcher past the office.
Rachel opened her eyes for only a second.
She whispered a room number.
Mia remembered it.
“Seventeen twelve.”
Room 1712 had been empty for months because of water damage.
I checked the access log.
Vanessa entered it fourteen times during the pregnancy.
Daniel led officers downstairs.
Inside the sealed room they found medical supplies, restraints, surveillance monitors, and a hospital bassinet.
Rachel had been held there between appointments.
The walls were covered with handwritten notes.
Days until delivery.
Trust filing deadlines.
Alexander travel schedule.
One note read:
If Rachel refuses after birth, use the Caroline contingency.
Caroline stared at it.
“What contingency?”
We found the answer inside a locked cabinet.
A death certificate had already been prepared for Caroline.
Cause of death: complications from childbirth.
Another certificate named Vanessa as the biological mother of the baby.
The plan was not only to steal the child.
It was to kill Caroline again on paper and erase Rachel completely.
Franklin examined the documents.
“If filed together, these could create enough confusion to delay any challenge for years.”
Alexander looked at him.
“Who designed them?”
Franklin recognized the legal formatting.
His former partner, Harold Vance.
Harold had died nine months earlier.
Or had supposedly died.
Every death connected to the Whitmores now felt uncertain.
Police tracked the ambulance heading north toward a private airfield.
The storm outside had intensified. Rain covered the city streets, and visibility dropped.
Alexander wanted a helicopter.
The weather grounded all aircraft.
We left in armored vehicles.
Caroline came with us.
Alexander objected.
“That child is mine too,” she said.
“You are not walking into another trap.”
“I have lived inside one for three years.”
No one could stop her.
During the drive, Caroline told Alexander what happened after the boat explosion.
She remembered receiving a warning that company executives knew about her federal meeting. She called Vanessa for help because she believed Vanessa was still her friend.
Vanessa arranged the sailboat.
The engine exploded fifteen minutes after departure.
A fisherman found Caroline clinging to wreckage.
Vanessa reached the hospital before Alexander.
She told doctors Caroline was involved in an abusive marriage and needed protection.
She produced forged police reports naming Alexander as dangerous.
Caroline’s memory was damaged enough to believe her.
“When did you realize the truth?” Alexander asked.
“When I found the news report of you offering ten million dollars for information.”
“Why did you not contact me then?”
“Vanessa said it was a performance.”
“I never stopped searching.”
Caroline looked out the window.
“I wanted to believe that.”
Pain filled the vehicle, but neither had time to resolve it.
The ambulance reached the private airfield before police.
Mercer drove through a side gate controlled by Whitmore Aviation.
Someone inside the company had authorized access.
When we arrived, a small medical jet waited with engines running.
Mercer pushed Rachel toward the aircraft.
Two armed men covered him.
Alexander exited before our vehicle fully stopped.
“Mercer!”
The doctor turned.
Rachel screamed from the stretcher.
Her contractions were close together.
The baby was coming.
Mercer held a syringe against her neck.
“Stay back.”
Caroline moved beside Alexander.
“Rachel, it is Caroline.”
Rachel looked toward her.
Relief broke through her pain.
“They said you were dead.”
“I am here.”
Mercer shouted at her to stop talking.
Police surrounded the runway.
The pilot remained inside the jet.
Franklin recognized one of the armed men.
He was a Whitmore board member named Lawrence Kane.
Alexander stared at him.
“You authorized the gate.”
Lawrence raised his weapon.
“The company cannot survive the truth Caroline uncovered.”
“It will survive without criminals.”
“No. Investors will run. Government contracts will collapse.”
“You tried to steal my child to preserve stock value.”
“We preserved succession.”
Rachel cried out again.
Mercer looked at the aircraft.
There was no time to fly.
The baby would be born on the runway.
Caroline approached slowly.
“I was a nurse before I married Alexander. Let me help her.”
Mercer hesitated.
Rachel begged him.
“Please.”
He allowed Caroline closer.
The moment she reached the stretcher, Rachel grabbed Mercer’s wrist.
Caroline struck the syringe away.
Gunfire erupted.
Alexander pulled both women behind the ambulance.
Police fired toward Lawrence’s men.
Mia remained inside our armored vehicle with Daniel, but she watched through the window.
She saw something none of us noticed.
The pilot exited the jet carrying a newborn medical carrier.
There was already a baby inside it.
Mia opened the vehicle door before Daniel could stop her.
“That is not her baby,” she shouted.
Everyone turned.
The pilot ran toward a second car.
Alexander saw the carrier.
“What child is that?”
Mercer’s face went white.
Rachel stared at him.
Then she screamed, “My first baby.”
The runway went silent around her words.
Rachel had been pregnant before.
May you like
Vanessa’s operation had not begun six months earlier.
Continue to the next part: Rachel reveals another child was taken from her before the current pregnancy, and the pilot escapes with the baby.
